Sometimes, you just need a time out! Whoever created recess back in the good ol’ days of elementary school was ON TO SOMETHING. As we grow older our recess might look like getting a bite with friends, going out to the movies solo dolo, going on a hike, or whatever. For me, it tends to involve hanging with friends and creating.

During my first year of medical school, I started this weekly portraits series (check out the evolution here) when I realized that I needed to keep photography in my life, even if it was at a minimal level to stay sane. It was my recess.

Fast forward to my second year of medical school. Things got intense. I kept shooting and started a series called “Parking Lot” where I just invited people I met around Grand Rapids to shoot with my in my apartments parking lot. LOL. I’m all about using your surroundings to create and tell stories. I didn’t have access to stylists, makeup artists, and hair stylists out in Grand Rapids, MI okay?! I found some but didn’t always have time to plan things as I wanted to. Hopefully, I will be sharing shots from those series on here soon when I have time to put it together.

Now, in my third year, I have even less time. After my first intense clerkship (4 weeks rotations working full-time as a student doctor in different specialties), I realized I needed a recess. I had just moved to Flint, MI and didn’t know anyone that I could create with. So I went to one of the cities that feels more and more everytime I come back. New York City.

I reached out to creatives that had been checking in with me just to see if they would be free to meet up, packed my little carry on with random curtains, fabrics, and backdrops from once upon a time, and flew out for a weekend. It was magical. I felt like I got to release some pent up energy, just as if I was a 7 year old playing tetherball before going back to class for the second half of the day.

This set features a beautiful young woman, Sabrina Abdalla, who I had met once before on a random weekend in New York about a year ago. She is multi-talented poet and an educator that is inspiring and encouraging our youth. It was a blessing to be able come out on a weekend where she was free and willing to be a muse for myself and the other photographers who came out to play.

Enjoy this series from my latest creative break in NYC.

Words by Sabrina Abdalla.

UNTITLED

You were never lost

You were just too busy

Searching for yourself

In the wrong places

Start searching in the dark, 

Perhaps that’s where you find

the beautiful parts you thought

you had to hide. 

you’ve perfected the craft 

of expanding just to come 

pouring down 

shrinking into folded skin 

you’ve created a waterfall out 

of your tears 

a monsoon out of your fountain 

girl with your heat 

you can make hot air rise 

but instead you dense up and sink

and watch the whole sky 

from underwater 

when will you stop

perfecting the art 

of hiding yourself 

the world can handle 

and may need you 

to share because 

whenever you lose yourself 

from your art 

here 

someone finds themselves 

there 

Acknowledgements: Pearl Loehnig for holding the curtain :) and all of the amazing creatives that came out to play during my little recess. Appreciate the love and community. All photos shot with a Canon EOS R, 85mm 1.8.

Much Love